I'm experiencing brake & shifter cable hell, and would greatly appreciate suggestions.

Original setup: shimano steel cable housing & steel braided cables. Operation ok, but decided to upgrade.

2nd setup: Gore Ride-On housing & teflon cables. The housing was incredibly stiff, so much so that it
created drag/resistance when turning the front wheel. The cables started out good, then the teflon wore
down and balled up, creating resistance.

3rd setup: Nokon aluminum ferrule housing, aftermarket cable liner (bigger ID), & Powercordz cables.
The Nokon is flexible, but didn't seem to be as stiff as promised. The Powercordz never worked right,
as they were too stretchy from the start.

4th setup: replaced the Powercordz with std. steel cables. Performance improved a bit, but the shifting
still inaccurate and not crisp at all (still with Nokon housing).

Help I'm in Cable Hell! Please recommend a light weight but solid cable system that doesn't cost 3 figures!

Did you actually read the instructions about how to set up the NOKON liners? (critical to leave a small gap or they won't perform well).
Use a decent sized loop down to the rear mech and ANYTHING works fine when properly set up so is it possible that there is an issue elsewhere?
How were you cutting the ends of your steel outer cables?
Are you using lube as well as the teflon coated gores?
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And a simple answer is that Alligators with the Alu compressionless work well and their coated inner cables are pretty good too! Note DO NOT LUBE THEM....that is what the coating is for and some lubes will cause major issues with coated cables.

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I've had great success with Nokon housing and I use either JagWire or Shimano inner liner from whatever housing I get from the shop. I just run a knife down the housing to strip off the outer then remove the inner liner and install noon on top of that.

I have also just put Mini iLinks and iLinks on my road bike. They work great with the stock liner and stock cables from my Sram Red shifters.


My guess your issues come down to whoever is doing your installations. You need to find a mechanic that knows what he is doing or if its you, you need to take some time and learn how to cable and house a bike. You should also learn how to adjust and tune brakes and derailleurs.

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was asking for product recommendations...the mechanic is ok!

Can you post pictures of your current routing?

Agree with others here. Anything will work well if set up correctly, so the problem is not caused by bad cable choice alone. If correctly set up, your nokon housing with quality stainless inner should give superb results.

As for recommendations, I've had great success with nokon with standard steel cable (running full length liner for best weather sealing on MTB), but current favourite for weight/performance is Alligator i-link/mini. Flexible, so no steering drag, compression free for great performance.

i recommend powercordz, they stretch less than steel, and nokon should be stiffer than traditional housing, certainly much stiffer than gore ride-on - i went from that to nokon/powercordz, huge improvement, there's just no contest

if your powercordz installation was "too stretchy" it is clear that the nokon was not installed correctly, things to check are if the liner has been cut too long and/or the nokon coils and beads were not snugged up properly and/or the wrong ferrules used

+1. I've had the same experience. Haven't tried running Powercordz through them yet.

Reading this, back to Shimano !

My experience > braking = stiff, shifting = smooth, set up = straightforward, long lasting.

When shifting gets 'bad', it usually is the case that the cable housing near the rear derailleur is full of mud after riding in the rain for a couple of hours. Just replace that bit and the the cable and you are good to go again

It sounds like the original Shimano set up sounds like it worked best. If it's mainly about performance, I have found that it is really tough to beat Shimano SP41 housing and Shimano cables. They aren't sexy but they work well. As for routing (regardless of the housing used), be sure to route the housing on the outside of the shifter (assuming that they are current generation shifters); that makes a big difference. Also make sure that you don't cut your housing at the RD too short and use the metal end cap at the RD.

Yo-ko-zu-na

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Thanks all! I do have a pair of yokozuma inner cables on order, and if that doesn't fix it, then back to shimano.
I appreciate the suggestions on installation, but that's not an issue. It seems to be the sum of all the different brands together (housing, liner, cables). I actually suspect the large ID liner (i.e. very very thin liner) more than anything.
I might try the stock Nokon liners in the meantime.

To the OP stick with shimano's solution it is simple and works very well. The simple solution is generally the best one. I use campag outer and inners on my bike and I ride in all weathers and after a year shifting is still good and braking is fine.

GT56 - any outer that fill up with c*** after a couple of hours in the wet is one to stay away from.

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My dealer changed my 7900 equipped Tarmac cables (Shimano) to Gore Ride-On and it shifts butter smooth and refined now. In fact its every bit a silky smooth as my 7800 equipped Roubaix - which it wasn't before the change.

One last follow-up. Tonight I took out all the cabling, and installed the stock Nokon liner in the Nokon ferrules, with new steel cables. Works great now, and I'd even go so far as to vouch for Nokon!
My take-away is that the Powercordz nokon liner works only with Powercordz cables.

(BTW another member here already took dibs on the powercordz stuff.)

Out of Cable Hell !!!